BEIJING, China, February 3. A Korean national record highlighted the fourth day of preliminary action at the Good Luck Beijing China Open held in the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube), the location of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
Men's 50 free prelims<\/b>
\nThe Swedish twosome of Stefan Nystrand and Petter Stymne will look to do battle in finals after clocking close times of 22.33 and 22.37 in separate heats during prelims.<\/p>\n
Brazil's Nicholas Dos Santos posted a third-place time of 22.69, while Germany's Steffen Deibler took fourth in 22.94.<\/p>\n
Sweden's Marcus Pihl (23.03), Romania's Norbert Trandafir (23.33), Kazakhstand's Stanislav Kuzmin (23.45) and China's Huang Shaohua (23.47) will complete an international championship heat.<\/p>\n
Women's 200 IM prelims<\/b>
\nKorea's Hye Ra Choi paced the preliminary round with a time of 2:17.09, while hometown favorite Qi Hui clocked a second-place time of 2:17.33.<\/p>\n
Germany's trio of Annika Mehlhorn (2:19.72), Theresa Michalak (2:20.34) and Nina Schiffer (2:12.80) touched third through fifth, while Taipei's Man-Hsu Lin (2:22.32), Hong Kong's Hang Yu Sze (2:26.28) and Estonia's Elina Partyka (2:26.46) rounded out the top eight.<\/p>\n
Men's 200 IM prelims<\/b>
\nJapan's Hidemasa Sano stopped the clock with the swiftest time of the evening in 2:01.68, while Portugal's Diogo Carvalho finished second in 2:02.80, just shy of is national record of 2:02.41 set last April.<\/p>\n
Hungary's Laszlo Cseh posted a third-place 2:04.78, while Korea's Beom Ho Park (2:04.81) and Portugal's Carlos Almeida (2:05.47) took fourth and fifth, respectively.<\/p>\n
Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Gordiyenko (2:06.15), Estonia's Martin Liivamagi (2:06.95) and Poland's Mateusz Matczak (2:07.90) made up the rest of the championship qualifiers.<\/p>\n
Women's 200 back prelims<\/b>
\nHungary's Nikolett Szepesi cruised in prelims for the top-seed time of 2:14.31, well ahead of second-place qualifier Chan Yanyan of China (2:16.90).<\/p>\n
Hong Kong's Claudia Lau touched third in 2:18.28, while Germany's Antje Buschschulte (2:18.41) and Mexico's Lourdes Villasenor (2:19.11) placed fourth and fifth.<\/p>\n
Korean duo Yoo Jin Jung (2:21.59) and Nam Eun Lee (2:23.53) garnered sixth and seventh, while Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Prilepa (2:24.64) claimed the final transfer spot.<\/p>\n
Men's 100 back prelims<\/b>
\nGermany's Helge Meeuw will look to take a run at his European record time of 53.46 after earned lane four with a 54.96 in prelims.<\/p>\n
Koreans Min Sung (55.48) and Ji Heun Kim (56.26) placed second and third, with Sung's time clipping his national record of 55.58 set at the World University Games last summer.<\/p>\n
China's Sun Xiaolei (56.62), Shi Feng (57.04) and Zhang Yu (57.74) earned fourth through sixth place, while Kazakhstan's Stanislav Ossinskiy (57.81) and Mexico's Miguel Robles (58.16) grabbed the last few spots in finals.<\/p>\n